Chicago Hen Party Dance Class Cheltenham
Shoulders, smirks and slow-burn jazz: one choreographer turns your party into a chorus line of merry murderesses — £190 for ninety minutes, venue on top, one written quote for everything, and £165 plus venue should the schedule only allow sixty.
Slow moves, criminal levels of attitude
Here’s the secret nobody tells you about a Chicago hen do dance class: it’s the least athletic theme on the list. This style is deliberate, slow and dripping with intent — a lifted chin here, a rolled shoulder there — which means a group with zero experience can look genuinely, filmably good by the end of the class. The drama does the cardio for you.
Your choreographer arrives fluent in the show and composes the routine on the day, cut to fit the women actually in the hall. Big characters get big moments, quiet ones get the chorus, and the bride gets whatever verdict she demands. No two groups leave with the same number, because no two groups walk in the same.
Where other providers sell this theme with a props hamper and a per-head bill, we sell it the boring-brilliant way: one flat figure for the whole dance hen party, a real named hall, and a teacher whose only kit is expertise. Of all the hen party ideas competing for your Saturday, this is the one that makes everyone feel like the lead suspect.
Ninety minutes of premeditated jazz
Warm-up, with intent
Necks, shoulders, hips — the isolations that power this whole style, smuggled in as a giggly warm-up.
The walk goes sultry
Ordinary walking rebuilt at half speed with twice the eyebrow. The single most useful move you’ll take home.
Verse by smoky verse
Poses, lunges and dramatic freezes stack into a routine, with the bride handed the most incriminating spotlight.
The verdict, filmed
Full run-through for the phones, one slow-motion pose to close. Guilty, on every count, of nailing it.
The flat figure, cross-examined
Choreographer, retaineda professional who knows the show cold and teaches it with mischief rather than menace
inWhole-group pricing£190 for ninety minutes or £165 for sixty covers every hen equally; the only extra is the venue’s own hire charge
flatHall on the same billwe book the room, add its charge to the quote, and the organiser signs off one number in writing
inEvidence, admissiblefinale footage and the group photo, filmed on your phones and yours to publish or bury
yoursChicago is built on slowness, so it rewards the slower class. The sultry walk gets rebuilt at half speed, the isolations need a little while to stop looking like stretches, and the extra half hour lets every freeze be held long enough to look properly incriminating. The verdict: ninety.
Not included, on principle: bowler hats, gloves and fishnets. The wardrobe is your caper to plan — and no routine we teach depends on chairs, canes or any prop the group would have to lug across town.
Our hall or yours — you choose
Tommy Taylors Lane, GL50 4RN
One of the venues we offer is the hall we hire on Tommy Taylors Lane, on the Pittville side of Cheltenham. It has a proper dance floor, room for a big group to spread out, parking nearby and the town-centre bars a short taxi away. We book it for your slot, and its hire goes onto your written quote as the venue cost.
Already got somewhere? We’ll come to you
A hotel function room, a hired house with a big lounge, a village hall, a marquee with a solid floor — if there’s space for everyone to move and a socket for the speaker, the teacher travels to you anywhere around Cheltenham. The class fee stays the same flat figure, and whatever your venue charges stays between you and them.
Chicago is sharp and contained, so it suits smaller rooms better than most themes do.
Not sure which option suits? Tell us where the group is staying when you enquire and we’ll suggest the easier one.
Five numbers to start your list
All That Jazzthe opener everybody knows — slow enough to teach, iconic enough to film
the classicCell Block Tangosix alibis, one chorus line — irresistible to groups with ringleaders
storytellingRazzle Dazzleshowmanship over footwork; flatters absolutely every ability level
pure showbizWhen You’re Good to Mamabig, brassy and wickedly funny with the right ringmistress up front
big and brassyHot Honey Ragthe quick one — a sprint of a number for groups who fancy a challenge
up-tempoTreat these five as evidence, not a verdict — your list can name any songs you fancy, from the Chicago score or nowhere near it. After booking, the organiser sends us the group’s top five in order of preference, and the instructor choreographs to one of them before anyone sets foot in the hall. If no list turns up, the instructor chooses a Chicago number on your behalf.
Ninety jazz minutes in a Regency town
There’s something delicious about rehearsing the wickedest show on Broadway ten minutes from Cheltenham’s primmest Regency terraces. The pattern that works: long lunch around the Suffolks, class at three while everyone’s sharp, then home to change into the black-and-diamante before the evening does its worst. Groups travel in from Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Stroud without breaking stride.
Wear whatever moves and smoulders — heels optional, attitude mandatory. On the list of hen party activities you’ll shortlist this month, it’s the only one taught entirely in slow motion.
Testimony from previous defendants
Eleven of us in black, one long mirror, and a teacher who taught smirking as a dance move. The slowest routine we learned all weekend and somehow the most dramatic.
None of us had done a jazz class in our lives. She broke every move into thirds, and by the end the bride was being carried round an imaginary courtroom.
One written price with the room folded in, no collecting twenties off anyone. I compared five options and this was the only one that didn’t need a calculator.
I expected to sit out and film. Instead I spent ninety minutes as a merry murderess and my bowler hat has not been the same since.
The cross-examination
Do we need to have seen the show first? +
No — one hen who can hum the trumpet line is plenty. The teacher sets the scene as they go, so by the finale even the friend who thought Chicago was purely a city is fluent in jailhouse jazz.
Bowlers, braces, fishnets — who is providing those? +
The group is. We bring the choreography and nothing else — hats, gloves and anything glittering are yours to hunt down, which most parties treat as a competitive sport. All black with red lipstick is the effortless fallback.
Is the choreography too slinky for absolute beginners? +
Slinky is actually the easy part — this style runs slow, so there’s time to think inside every count. The routine is composed on the day around the group’s real range, and attitude covers anything the feet miss.
Could the routine end up being Cell Block Tango? +
Easily — name it first. Once you’ve booked, the group sends a top five of songs in order of preference, and the instructor choreographs to one of those five ahead of the class, so Cell Block Tango at number one is a strong hint. With no list from you, the instructor chooses a Chicago number themselves. Six speaking-ish parts do make it tempting for parties of exactly six.
What would fourteen of us pay in total? +
The same as four or twenty-four would: £190 buys the ninety and £165 buys sixty, with the room charge the venue sets added on top. It arrives as one written quote — no per-hen maths anywhere in the process.
Is the hall far from the Promenade bars? +
A few minutes by taxi — we hire the hall on Tommy Taylors Lane (GL50 4RN), north of the centre near Pittville, so the step from smoky-jazz afternoon to Promenade evening is a short one.